of traces and remains

In this project I use (modern) archeology as a strategy for deconstructing power and signification systems. The film was shot on location in Pardis Garden, next to Persepolis (Iran). This is also the location of the former Tent City, where the Shah organized a celebration for the heads of state in 1971, to commemorate 2500 years of the Persian Empire and its founder Cyrus the Great. Hidden or suppressed memories and fragmentary archives were excavated in an attempt to highlight the underlying conditions and re-link the events that sparked revolts in two different countries, Iran in 1979 and Germany in 1967. The film focuses on places that played key roles in recent historical events. It shows how those places have since lost their original function and are subject to continuous appropriation and power shifts, leaving the sites as merely marks carved out in the landscape. The film gives attention to how people navigate these ambiguous shifts, how they either adapt or refuse to do so. It is my intention to expose the inherent pathological multiplicity with which the eventhood of an event is afflicted. The inter-titles in the film function as meta-narratives. They display the concept rendered in each chapter, and enable the film also to be presented in a non-linear form. The film consists of multiple narratives and layers that can function as points of departure for further research or follow-up of the project. One of the narrators (English speaking) in the film takes the role of a guide and symbolic figure, while the second narrator (Persian speaking) takes on the role of commentator and researcher.